Air Arabia UAE joins the In-flight Hygiene Phenomenon

Air Arabia UAE joins the In-flight Hygiene Phenomenon

September 12th, 2017 – In-flight hygiene has become more popular over the past few years with airlines and their passengers and crew taking some extra precautionary measures while travelling. Especially with the many viruses and diseases such as Ebola emerging, they have been extra careful with how to keep themselves safe while travelling. In the Middle East, Qatar Airways, Flynas Airlines have been utilizing various disinfecting techniques to fight in-flight viruses and now joining that rank is Air Arabia with Virus Guard providing the disinfectant products to enhance in-flight hygiene.

Air Arabia Sharjah has decided that keeping their passengers and crew healthy is a responsibility of theirs and will now start to disinfect their aircrafts departing from United Arab Emirates and Jordan. The partnership with Virus Guard, who is a leading disinfectant products supplier will be good for Air Arabia in ensuring their passengers are assured they’ll be less susceptible to the transmission of any virus or diseases while travelling on their flights.

To better understand how crucial in-flight hygiene/safety is TIME Health has released a list of the five filthiest places to avoid on airplanes. Some of these areas may be surprising but it’s the reality that has been demonstrated. The first area is the airplane tray tables, research shows that trays had 2,155 colony forming units (CFU) of bacteria per square inch compared to the 127 cfu/sq that the National Science Foundation says is standard for a home toilet seat. Popular diseases found on the trays include the cold virus, human parainfluenza virus, norovirus which may cause diarrhea and vomiting.

Another area that is covered in germs is the seatbelt buckles and air vents. The dials of the air vents above each passenger, is said to carry more bacteria than the plane toilet flush buttons, with 285 CFU/sq.in. covered in bacteria while the flush toilet button is covered with 265 CFU/sq. in. Surprisingly, another area susceptible to bacteria is the seatback pocket. Passengers usually use the pockets as a temporary waste basket and will dispose of dirty tissues, used diapers; food wrappers and other trash in the pocket and studies have shown that the MRSA germs survive for up to 7 days on the seat pocket cloth so it is essentially very dirty. Lastly, aisle seats round of the list of top five germiest surfaces on a plane. Usually passengers will walk by and hold on to the top of the aisle seats transmitting any germs from their hand to the seat and that is a popular space to rest your face while travelling.

With Air Arabia committing to implementing an in-flight hygiene program it is showing that awareness is growing for in-flight safety for both passengers and crew. It is imperative for other Airlines and carriers who are not on the train for in-flight hygiene they should jump on board with Virus Guard as a most suitable supplier for products.